North Korea yesterday fired two suspected ballistic missiles into the sea, South Korea and Japan said, continuing a streak of weapons launches that suggests North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is trying to bolster domestic support amid worries about a possible COVID-19 outbreak in the country.
South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement that it detected the projectiles flying from the North Korean eastern coastal city of Wonsan into waters between the Korean Peninsula and Japan yesterday morning.
The projectiles flew about 230km at a maximum altitude of 30km, the statement said.
Photo: AFP
‘INAPPROPRIATE’
The South Korean military described the launches as “very inappropriate” at a time when the world is battling the coronavirus outbreak.
It urged North Korea to stop such military action.
The Japanese Ministry of Defense said that presumed ballistic missiles were believed to have splashed into the sea outside of Japan’s exclusive economic zone.
“Recent repeated firings of ballistic missiles by North Korea is a serious problem to the entire international community, including Japan,” the ministry said in a statement.
In recent weeks, North Korea has fired a slew of missiles and artillery shells into the sea in an apparent effort to upgrade its military capability amid deadlocked nuclear talks with the US.
Some experts say that the latest North Korean launches were likely designed to shore up unity and show that Kim is in control in the face of US-led sanctions and the global pandemic.
‘NORMAL’ RULE
Kim “wants to show he rules in a normal way amid the coronavirus [pandemic] and his latest weapons tests were aimed at rallying unity internally, not launching a threat externally,” said Kim Dong-yub, an analyst at Seoul’s Institute for Far Eastern Studies. “North Korea doesn’t have time now to spare for staging” external threats.
North Korea has been engaged in an intense campaign to prevent the spread of the virus, which has infected more than 660,000 people worldwide.
It has called its campaign a matter of “national existence,” but has steadfastly denied that there has been a single virus outbreak on its soil.
Many foreign experts question that claim, warning that an epidemic in North Korea could be dire because of its chronic lack of medical supplies and poor healthcare infrastructure.
A week ago, North Korea said that US President Donald Trump sent a personal letter to Kim Jong-un, seeking to maintain good relations and offering cooperation in fighting the virus.
A North Korean state media dispatch did not say whether Trump mentioned any of the latest weapons tests by the North.
Kim Jong-un has vowed to boost internal strength to withstand what he calls “gangsters-like” US-led sanctions.
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